HBO has revealed staggering numbers for the final episode of The Last Of Us show.
As reported by Video Games Chronicle, Look for the Light, the ninth episode of the season, had 8.2 million viewers, capping off a sequence of continued increases in viewership, from 4.7 million watching the first episode upwards. It achieved this record viewership even though it was broadcast at the same time as the Oscars, which was on ABC in the United States.
In comparison, Game of Thrones spinoff show House of the Dragon premiered at 9.9 million viewers, but dipped to 9.3 million viewers for its final episode. House of the Dragon is also on HBO Max, and serves as a useful comparison to other prestige shows being broadcast at the same time.
Those The Last Of Us show viewer numbers should actually be even higher, after viewers on subscription service HBO Max are also factored in. Again, to make that comparison, House of the Dragon averages 29 million viewers per episode when initial broadcast and on-demand views are all taken into account.
Now, this may not quite be good enough in viewer numbers to match showrunner Craig Mazin’s claims that The Last Of Us is the greatest story ever told in video games. But it’s still solid numbers for a new show, and expectations are now high that Mazin and Druckmann’s team will be able to match or even raise their numbers for the upcoming second season.
Apparently, some fans were concerned for that second season, as in the source material, there is a considerable time jump between the first two The Last Of Us video games. Bella Ramsay definitely won’t be as old as her character Ellie is in the events of The Last Of Us Part 2. So there was a concern that Ellie would be recast for season 2.
Neil Druckmann addressed these concerns in a recent interview. He confirmed they would retain Bella since they consider themselves fortunate to have found her for the role. But it’s probably more important to note that a few days before that interview, Bella herself was interviewed about going back for Season 2. Bella talked about getting to work with Pedro Pascal and Craig Mazin again in Canada, so there’s no question that she will be back.
Without spoiling anything here, a lot of dark things happen in The Last Of Us Part 2. Will Mazin and Druckmann really put Bella through all of that? I personally think Mazin and Druckmann will play the creative card and set season 2 in the period between the two games, but maybe I’m wrong and they’re actually willing to take those risks with potentially controversial material. They did mention the second season won’t have everything from the second game, so that might be a huge hint to what they have planned.
